Kenneth Bialkin, a philanthropist and a longtime leader of major Jewish organizations, died August 15. He was 89. The Anti-Defamation League’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, announced his death. Bialkin was the civil rights group’s national chairman in the early 1980s.

Bialkin, who was until recently active as a retired partner at the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom legal firm, also was chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in the mid-1980s, when it took a lead in brokering freedoms for Soviet Jews in the final years of the USSR. He was also chairman of the American Jewish Historical Society, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, and chairman of the America Israel Friendship League. He served for 30 years as vice chairman of the Jerusalem Foundation, a major philanthropic builder in the Israeli city.